Project shows how New Milford students would go out to lunch

One day, a student’s lunch options consisted of a hot dog and french fries or roasted chicken with broccoli and carrots.

Another day’s options were a pizza burger or whole-wheat spaghetti with ground turkey tomato sauce.

Choices like these were the basis for a project conducted among first-graders at Berkley and Gibbs schools in New Milford. Researchers who conducted the project predict results will show parents are more inclined to choose the most convenient lunch options for their children.

If that’s so, they say the project could lead to more research in the field of pediatric obesity and that it could even help stem the tide of the disease, which experts are calling a nationwide epidemic.

Last month, the American Medical Association reclassified obesity a disease; it was previously designated a condition.

So, it was apropos that two professors representing the metropolitan campus of Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck conducted their project around the same time to determine how to improve school lunch menu choices, which in turn, can positively affect the health of local children.

Dr. Katharine Loeb, director of the university’s doctoral program in clinical psychology, conducted the project with Dr. Cynthia Radnitz, her colleague.

"What we’re trying to do, in a series of projects," Loeb said, "is to position food options and activity options in a variety of ways to improve choices, without fundamentally restricting free choice."

She added, "This is one piece of the broader puzzle to make the environment more health-promoting."

Loeb said she and her team are conducting other projects in the field, including one at the Bergen Family Center in Englewood and another in the university’s dining hall.

Those projects were funded through federal grants. The one conducted last month at Berkley and Gibbs was paid for with money the research team procured from the university.

Loeb said her grant of $5,000 went toward paying for the cost of lunch for students who participated in the project.

To qualify for the seed grant, researchers had to demonstrate a connection to the project participants, in this case students enrolled in the New Milford K-12 district.

Loeb said she and schools Superintendent Michael Polizzi formed a partnership when they met through their collective work with the Northern New Jersey Community Foundation, an Englewood-based nonprofit.

The foundation’s mission is to improve community life by focusing on civic engagement, education, public health, and so forth. In the past, it has supported projects addressing childhood obesity.

The Board of Education passed a resolution in February approving participation in the project by Berkley and Gibbs first-graders.

"Our interest as a district," Polizzi said, "is to look at the development of the whole child, not only academically, but nutritionally, too, because healthy bodies make for healthy minds.

"It’s a win-win for everyone," he added, "and part of it is to provide information to parents for healthy cooking habits at home. It’s hard for kids to make different choices about what to eat, if all they know is McDonald’s.

"It’s all about education. Hopefully, this project will give us reliable, solid data and successful outcomes to build upon."